Nadal's timing is off and he appeared to be tired. He got to the final of his first tournament and that's great. But how he is going to deal with yet another match after the singles finlal is yet to be seen.

This was a good result for Nadal in his first tourney back. You cannot just expect a guy to come off a 7 month break and win tourneys no problem. He got to the final and played a tough match. He will have to be better to make a good defense of his clay points but as long as the knee isn't a huge bother his form will improve.

He would have won regardless. According to veronique, Nadal is playing his best tennis right now.

Click to expand...

I haven't seen her say that. She said he was playing well for not having played in seven months, which prior to today was true. Did anyone think he would lose today? No, but it's a process. We'll see where he is in April.

Nadal won't be playing if he wasn't "healthy". It is his first tournament. Need to get the timing back.

Click to expand...

Yep and the end of the third set also came to mental toughness. That one doesn't come back in one day obviously. On the whole, I'm rather pleased with the state of his game itself. I think the basics are good.

World No. 73 Horacio Zeballos denied top seed Rafael Nadal a triumphant end to his first comeback event, topping the 11-time Grand Slam champion 6-7(2), 7-6(6), 6-4 to capture his first ATP World Tour trophy.